“Disseminating knowledge (…) is embracing values of democracy, tolerance, respect for otherness to which Elon Musk’s platform is today deliberately turning its back,” says the director of the Caen Memorial Kléber Arhoul.
The Caen Memorial teams deleted the museum’s account on Monday on the social network “incompatible with its values and its cultural project” according to its director Kléber Arhoul. “It is a carefully considered decision and confirmed by the recent insults ofElon Musk towards the German chancellor”Kléber Arhoul told AFP, “I take note that Elon Musk has the political project of uniting reactionary parties and at the Memorial we know what nationalism leads to”.
On December 28, the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag published an article in which the boss of X, spaceX and Tesla assures that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is “the last glimmer of hope” for Germany. Monday morning, the Caen Memorial announced in a press release its decision to “delete his X account (ex-Twitter) and put an end to any presence on this platform that has become incompatible with the cultural project he is leading”.
A “chaos factory”
“Spread knowledge”writes Kléber Arhoul, “it’s embracing the values of democracy, tolerance, respect for otherness to which Elon Musk’s platform is today deliberately turning its back”. In this text he deplores a “chaos factory” where knowledge is «inaudible» to those who only seek “stir up hatred and are only interested in the past to better inflame our present”. The director of the museum, which welcomed 475,000 visitors in 2024, estimated «urgent» to choose “with care of the platforms which truly allow a speech of truth to be addressed to all”. “To maintain our presence on X today would be to betray these principles and harm this mission” he concluded.
This decision is part of a wave of growing disaffection with this social network – bought by American billionaire Elon Musk in October 2022 – which resulted in France in the departure of regional dailies West France et South West or organizations like Greenpeace France.
Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, X has been accused by many media and users of spreading false information and of not allocating enough resources to moderate exchanges on the platform. Fervent supporter of Donald Trump, the richest man in the world has been appointed head of a ministry of“governmental efficiency” by the new elected president of the United States and defends a radical vision of freedom of expression, rejecting all forms of censorship.
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